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In a press release today we announced that we’ve partnered once again with Titan Books to create two new series of books: The Elder Scrolls Online – Tales of Tamriel & The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Skyrim Library!

Not since Encyclopedia Britannica’s heyday have volumes of books looked this cool and demanded to be on your bookshelf. With The Elder Scrolls Online, two volumes covering “The Land” and “The Lore” feature never-before-seen art and extensive lore surrounding the game. Meanwhile, by popular demand, the Skyrim series offers the first opportunity to get all of the game’s in-game text across three volumes.

The first volumes of these books are expected to release in March of 2015. For more information, read the full press release below…

TITAN BOOKS ANNOUNCES TWO NEW ELDER SCROLLS BOOK SERIES

Titan Books today announced five high-quality, in-universe artefacts for fans of The Elder Scrolls®, Bethesda Softworks’ internationally acclaimed and bestselling video game franchise. Titan Books, known for high quality film, TV and gaming tie-ins, with particular strength in the area of licensed entertainment titles, has been granted worldwide rights on the series.

Step into the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls Online with THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: TALES OF TAMRIEL – a series featuring a vast collection of in-game lore and original art. The two bound volumes chart the ongoing struggles between the Aldmeri Dominion, the Daggerfall Covenant, and the Ebonheart Pact – as well as the deadly invasion of Daedric Prince Molag Bal. Each book features close to one hundred specially commissioned, never-before-seen pieces of art illustrating the lives, the land, and the lore of Tamriel at war.

From the archives of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim® come the collected in-game texts, THE SKYRIM LIBRARY. This lavishly bound, three-volume series chronicles for the first time all of Tamriel’s history, and covers a multitude of Elder Scrolls lore – including the cultures, creatures, magic, myths, and more – illustrated with stunning art.

Omar Khan, the series’ editor, is delighted to be a part of this new project, “I’m very excited to play a part in bringing the in-game text from Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls Online to print. Using art and text from Bethesda, we were able craft these amazing tomes that truly showcase the exceptionally well-written and in-depth lore that is the foundation of The Elder Scrolls.”

“One of the most important aspects of The Elder Scrolls series is the lore,” said Pete Hines, VP of Marketing and PR for Bethesda Softworks. “To have so much of its history chronicled in this way, accompanied by art sourced from the games, is very cool We’re excited to be working with Titan on this project, and for fans to see how much detail goes into the worlds our development teams create.”

THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: TALES OF TAMRIEL – VOL. I: THE LAND and THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM –THE SKYRIM LIBRARY, VOL. I: THE HISTORIES are set to hit stores in March next year.

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About The Elder Scrolls Series

With each instalment reimagining and revolutionizing the genre, The Elder Scrolls series brings to life a complete virtual world for you to explore in any way you choose. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim®, released in November 2011, is the most recent single-player game set in the award-winning Elder Scrolls universe. Skyrim earned hundreds of ‘Game of the Year’ awards. Skyrim was the second-highest grossing title in the industry in 2011, and the fastest-selling title in Steam’s history. The Elder Scrolls series includes Arena, Dagerfall, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002 RPG of the Year), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006 Game of the Year). The Elder Scrolls Online® is the latest chapter in the franchise, and brings the legendary experience online for the first time in its 20-year history. Explore the expansive world – from the far reaches of Skyrim to the sprawling metropolis of Daggerfall and beyond – as a lone adventurer or with friends. The choices you make, from the alliance you join to the battles you fight, will shape your destiny and the world of Tamriel.

About Bethesda Softworks

Bethesda Softworks, part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, is a worldwide publisher of interactive entertainment software. Titles featured under the Bethesda label include such blockbuster franchises as The Elder Scrolls®, DOOM®, QUAKE®, Fallout®,Wolfenstein®, Dishonored®, Prey® and RAGE®. For more information on Bethesda Softworks’ products, visit www.bethsoft.com.

Following last week’s reveal of Dishonored’s “The Dunwall Archives” art book, this week we’re featuring another fine art book from Dark Horse, “The Art of the Evil Within”. Sure to excite any fan of Shinji Mikami or just horror fans in general, “The Art of the Evil Within” features concept art, developer notes, and designs featured in game.

Packed with 184 pages of incredible and spine-tingling artwork and features, the hardcover book releases this October to accompany the game’s launch.

The second Elder Scrolls novel from author Greg Keyes, The Lord of Souls, officially goes on sale tomorrow. Just in time, Random House has put up an enormous 50 page sample of the novel for you to peruse at your leisure.

Click through to read through the sample, and scroll to the bottom of the excerpt for links to where you can order a copy.

Summer’s almost over and we’re closing in on the release dates for RAGE (October 4th) and Skyrim (November 11th). If you can’t cryogenically freeze yourself, we recommend picking up these fine books from Random House.

RAGE, written by author and game writer Matt Costello, will release in North America on August 30, 2011. The novel centers around Lieutenant Nick Raine, an Ark survivor that emerges into the apocalyptic world of RAGE to confront a “would-be tyrant.” For an excerpt of the novel look below — jump over to Random House to preorder (folks in the UK can order here).

Lord of Souls, the second Elder Scrolls novel by Greg Keyes, will hit stores on September 27 in North America (September 23rd in the UK). Head to Random House to preorder the book (UK can pre-order here), but beware the synopsis if you haven’t read the first TES novel yet.

Following up our announcement about Dark Horse’s comic book series, we’re also pleased to announce we’re working with Del Rey on a novel based around the game’s world and characters. The novel, also titled “RAGE”, releases on August 30th and will be written by author and game writer Matt Costello.

As more details on the novel surface, we’ll let you know. For now, read our press release…

NEW YORK, NY – March 29, 2011 – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, and Del Rey, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that Del Rey Books will publish a novel based on the upcoming RAGE® video game. The novel, also entitled “RAGE”, will be written by author and game writer Matt Costello and will release in North America on August 30, 2011. The novel will be published simultaneously in the UK and British Commonwealth by Ebury Publishing, part of the Random House Group.

RAGEis the latest game from id® Software, the acclaimed designers of such classics as the Wolfenstein®, DOOM®, and QUAKE® series. Eagerly awaited by the gaming community, RAGEis already being touted as one of the industry’s most innovative first-person shooters, winning numerous awards at E3 2010, including ‘Best Overall Game of Show’ from IGN and three ‘Best of E3’ Game Critics Awards including ‘Best Console Game’. Set in the not-too-distant future after an asteroid impacts Earth, you emerge into a vast wasteland to discover humanity working to rebuild itself against such forces as bandit gangs, mutants, and more.

“Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is damn near unbeatable. Sure the main storyline quest is beatable within a couple hours, but the main quest is nothing. There are literally hundreds of quests in this game, and given the world which Bethesda has created for you, you will definitely attempt to complete as many as you can. The fact that there are two huge expansion packs doesn’t make it any easier either.”

“It was this specific mission that appropriately demonstrated Oblivion’s breadth. The game allowed players to brazenly hack and slash their way through difficult scenarios or sneak past them. Each problem players were faced with could be approached from a number of angles. In essence, the Dagon Shrine proved that Oblivion catered to almost every type of role player, which is why it’s worthy of commemoration.”

One final bit on Oblivion. The latest (June) issue of OXM has a small feature titled, “The Developer’s Cut,” where developers discuss content from their games that didn’t make the final release. On page 87, Todd Howard discusses content cut from Oblivion. Head to your local newsstand (or your mailbox) to read it, as well as a new preview for Hunted: The Demon’s Forge.

Putting a bow around this roundup, author Grant Tavinor recently released a new book, The Art of Videogames, featuring Fallout 3 on the cover. Throughout the text, you can find references to DOOM, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 (I’m particularly interested in reading the chapter “The Morality of Videogames”). For more on the subject, Tavinor recently wrote a column for Kotaku in response to comments from film critic Roger Ebert.

Updated: GameSetWatch’s Emily Short has an in-depth look back at her play experience with Fallout 3. Read the article here.

The Infernal City — the first of two books based on The Elder Scrolls’ universe, is being released today and is available in stores and online at places like Amazon.

Look, the holidays are coming. You’re going to be around people you can only stand so much of. Not talking to them in order to play video games doesn’t always go over so well. Reading a book, however…well that makes you smarter, and who could argue against that? And you need a new book, so I recommend getting this one. I think I’ve read it about 4 or 5 times now. It’s really good. If you pick it up, let us know what you think.

In case you missed it previously, see the interview I did with Infernal City author Greg Keyes here.

On Tuesday, November 24th, The Infernal City: An Elder Scrolls Novel will be released at bookstores and for digital download. Before the book’s release, Pete sent over questions to the author — New York Times’ bestselling author Greg Keyes.

Check out the interview below…

For those that aren’t familiar with you, can you give us a brief intro on yourself and some of your previous works?
I studied anthropology at Mississippi State and the University of Georgia. I started writing at a young age, but it wasn’t until 1995 that I sold my first novel, The Waterborn. It and its sequel were fantasies that drew on Native American and Central Asian mythologies for inspiration. I next wrote an alternate history fantasy called The Age of Unreason. Set in the eighteenth century, it wondered what the world might have been like if Isaac Newton’s work in alchemy had paid off the way — at one point — he thought it had. My latest series, The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, is an epic fantasy in a somewhat more traditional vein. I’ve also worked on other shared universes; I wrote three books for the television show Babylon Five, and three Star Wars novels.

Wanted to share with you the cover for The Infernal City — the first of two books based on The Elder Scrolls’ universe. Written by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, the book will be available on November 24th. Head to Amazon.com to pre-order your copy.